AROUND 400 workers at a factory in Hereford were set to strike for five days this week. The workers, members of the GMB union, work at Special Metals Wiggin producing nickel alloys.
THERE ARE many things that stop Tony Blair sleeping at night. One of them is his fear that the union movement may be about to humiliate him again. Two of Britain's biggest and most influential unions, the TGWU and GMB, are about to elect new general secretaries. In both elections the candidates have not been finally decided.
ACTIVISTS IN the unions covering university workers are campaigning hard against accepting a terrible offer on London allowance payments. The insulting offer only came after two one-day strikes. It amounts to just £130 a year extra in inner London, £90 in outer London, and just £30 in the surrounding areas. Negotiators in the Natfhe and AUT lecturers' unions were set to recommend accepting the deal.
OVER 5,000 train guards working for 21 companies are to vote on strikes over safety. The RMT rail union is calling the action after train companies reneged on a deal last year to preserve the safety role of guards.
AMICUS-MSF health workers in London voted overwhelmingly last week to oppose the government's new pay package, Agenda for Change. The meeting of the Health Service Advisory Committee (the body representing health workers in London) was the largest and angriest for years.
JOURNALISTS AT two Newsquest-owned newspaper groups in the north of England were set to walk out on Monday of this week. Management refused to offer an increased pay deal. In Bradford workers are to strike for five days. They have been offered just 2 percent.
TWO LEADING campaigners for the health service, Candy Udwin and Dave Carr, have been unjustly expelled from the Unison union. It is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of Unison. It is the final act of a political witch-hunt that was waged by a section of the Unison bureaucracy. This witch-hunt began with the election of New Labour in 1997.
THE SUN newspaper is putting people's lives at risk. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch's rag ran a scare story about refugees "bringing deadly diseases into Britain" on Friday of last week. It says the rise in HIV/AIDS and TB cases is down to refugees and immigrants. The Sun is trying to make cheap, racist propaganda out of serious diseases.
THE UNITED Nations (UN) Security Council was due to meet on Friday to hear the latest report from the weapons inspectors. War would be wrong whether or not George Bush and Tony Blair get support for military action from the UN. No veneer of diplomatic cover can justify the murder of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children.
"IN JULY last year I had my jaw broken and face scarred and I was in hospital after a racist attack. It has taken six months for me to be able to start getting my life sorted out. I've had a lot of support from this community. A lot of people came forward to give evidence. But the problems I have had have been mainly with the police. They haven't told us what's been going on. Something needs to be done in the community. We should get rid of these racist people who do things like they did to me."
THREE DISPUTES show car workers in major factories across Britain are fed up with low pay and poor conditions. Peugeot workers at the Ryton plant in Coventry were set to walk out for 24 hours this week. Gerry Jones used to work at the plant. He told Socialist Worker:
